Emma Freeman's travel blog about cruises

Rumbling on…

My dad wrote to several newspapers, asking them to do pieces warning their readers as to what they might expect if they go to the USA these days, immigration-wise. Forewarned is forearmed, after all.

He has had two responses so far. One from the wonderful Simon Calder (my idol!), travel expert extraordinaire, and also someone from the Telegraph. It seems that US immigration is currently a hot topic. Hardly surprising, considering how it is deteriorating. Surely there comes a point where the harassment handed out to incoming visitors becomes not just unbearable but unacceptable and untenable?

I may have forgotten to tell you that when the Head of Security took four crew and two passengers to the airport in Boston (one of which was his wife), it took over an hour to get the six of them through immigration. That’s TEN MINUTES EACH.

Even Dave Gorman has had problems. He went to LA recently for a tv recording. He travelled by plane, which is clearly getting to be just as bad as cruising as a means of arrival. His experiences can be found at http://gormano.blogspot.com/. The piece is dated 13 July 2011 and is entitled London – Los Angeles – Maidenhead – New Greenham (New preview gigs). He was stuck for five hours.

What on Earth is the matter with America? Have they somehow concluded that, since September 11th, it’s best just to not to let anyone in at all?! Or make it so unappealing that people will stop bothering? I don’t think they’re going to fix their economy if they persist in dissuading absolutely all tourism.

We’ll see how it goes, I suppose. If anyone spots a news article in a paper, magazine or online on this topic, please do let me know.